'We dance so we won't lose our culture'

Festival brings Guatemalans a taste of home

Jupiter — While most Americans geared up for the biggest football game of the year Sunday, Guatemalans near Abacoa Town Center got together for a different celebration.

Symbolizing the ritualistic hunt for deer, a group of dancers gathered near Roger Dean Stadium donned intricate blue or black costumes lined with strips of bright yellow or white cloth and wore masks made to look like dogs, lions, monkeys or tigers.

Jose Luis Hernandez got to be the main character, wearing a deer mask for the length of the Baile del Venad o (Dance of the Deer), at the seventh Fiesta Maya, a yearly celebration of Mayan and Guatemalan culture. The event coincided with a festival in the town of Jacaltenango, Guatemala, that honors its patron saint, the Virgin of Candelaria."We dance so we won't lose our culture and forget where we come from," said Hernandez, a native of Guatemala who now lives in Jupiter.

About 200 Guatemalan men and women joined Hernandez at Abacoa Town Center on Sunday to celebrate their Mayan culture with a parade, a soccer game and a traditional meal of grilled steak, salsa, black beans, rice and tortillas.

Some of Sunday's celebrants work on farms or as day laborers in the Jupiter area. Organizers on Sunday were happy that protesters who have demanded the closure of the El Sol Neighborhood Resource Center, a facility that pairs up Spanish-speaking day laborers with prospective employers, didn't picket Fiesta Maya.

The event on Sunday was put together by Corn Maya Inc. - a nonprofit group dedicated to help Mayans - students from FAU's Wilkes Honors College and volunteers from El Sol. They hoped to share Mayan culture with others and to bring a taste of home to Guatemalans here.

"They don't get to go home very often," said Tim Steigenga, an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University and one of Fiesta Maya's organizers. "In a sense, they're creating a sense of home for themselves here."

While Hernandez and the other dancers shimmied down the road, Fernando Millon and his family stood on a street corner marveling at the dancers' costumes.

"It's almost like carnaval," Millon said, referring to the celebrations held in his native Colombia. "For them, every costume represents something from their culture. It's a rich culture."

Lorna Kenny, who runs a residential cleaning business, drove to Fiesta Maya to support one of her employees and learn more about her culture. She admired the Mayans for sharing their culture with others and for passing it down to their children."I don't understand most of [the dances] but I'm enjoying it," Kenny said. "It looks like it's going through the generations. They have an old guy and young people."

Chrystian Tejedor can be reached at ctejedor@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6631.